Šejla Kamerić | Burn By Staying Cool, 2022

For HOT MESS, Šejla Kamerić presents Burn By Staying Cool. 

Kamerić works with various media such as film, photography, objects or drawings. The all-pervading element in her work are her own, often uneasy, memories. These recollections become a power source in her oeuvre, wherein the burdens of the past sharpen our focus on the present. Biographical in nature, her experiences, memories and dreams invite the viewer on journeys to glocal spaces of displacement and discrimination, without ever neglecting the presence of delicateness or the sublime within experiences of catastrophe or hardship. Instead these states exist simultaneously, with Kamerić revealing a complex, psycho-geographic landscape reverberating with the tenacity of human spirit. Each work foregrounds how sadness and beauty, hope and pain, are integral parts of the stories we share. The weight of Kamerić’s themes stand in powerful contrast to her particular aesthetic and choice of fragile materials. 

Šejla Kamerić (b. 1976, Sarajevo) has received widespread acclaim for her poignant and intimate social commentary. Kamerić’s works have been on view in solo exhibitions at prestige art institutions such as GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (2018); CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Kunsthaus Graz, Graz; Sharjah Art foundation – Sharjah Art Museum; Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana (2012); MACBA, Barcelona; Manchester International Festival MFI; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2011); mumok in Vienna, Röda Sten Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture in Gothenburg, Wip: Konsthall in Stockholm and Centre Pompidou in Paris (2010); Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck (2008); Portkus in Frankfurt am Maine (2004). Kamerić’s works have been included in numerous collection worldwide, such as TATE Modern, London; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris; MACBA – Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Group and ERSTE Foundation, Vienna; Art Collection Telekom, Bonn; Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Collection (2007+), Istanbul and others.